Kingdom Hearts: The Wish
by Bracken-Fae
Summary: Amy, a girl who never fit in, is picked up by some odd visitors to her world, and finds her true nature and being. ok that was cheesy, but so is the fanfiction! i wrote this before i had finished KH, so please make allowances. SK ROC
1. Chapter 1: Introduction to the Strange

Okaaaaaay. well, I really hope you like this, but it seriously needs some work, because I wrote it yonks before I finished kingdom hearts, so some won' really make sense to those who have. Anywayz, here's your disclaimer: I don't own any of Kingdom Hearts, or any of the characters. However, Amy belongs to me. MWAHAHA oh, yes, and sorry that they're veeeery short chapters, I just do them like that!!! *mwah!* Bracken  
  
I would also like to thank my best friend, Granola, for her help with this story. You rock! Annnyways, enough with the long-windedness, and the err very cheesy outbursts, on wit the story!!  
  
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Kingdom Hearts: The Wish  
  
Chapter 1  
  
She sat on the window-ledge, with the window open. A cool breeze was blowing, but she didn't mind the cold. She stared at the grey clouds slowly drifting by. She had been there for hours, just wishing. It was her favourite spot in the house. On the window-ledge in her room. She watched a bird, a crow she thought; glide by, against the breeze. She watched the cars drive by and wished things were different. She wished with all her might that she could be somewhere else. She didn't know where, just yet, but all Amy knew as she gazed out over the urban, red-bricked, semi detached houses, that she just didn't fit in. She was different from all the kids at school, different from the kids her own age, different from the kids in her class and even different from her best friend.  
  
A boy walked past, on the other side of the road to her. She studied his face carefully, the way he walked, the way he had his hands in his pockets, everything about him.  
  
'How am I different?' She asked herself. Amy looked the way everyone looked around here, dressed the way everyone dressed here, and talked the way everyone talked here. The clouds had now drifted past, leaving a pinky-blue sunset with wisps of cloud scattered here and there. She strained her mind as hard as she could, then it came to her. She dressed the same, talked the same, looked the same, but she never seemed to have the same opinion as anybody around here.  
  
She didn't think about the things everyone else thought about, not war, or fame, or politics or anything like that. She thought about things like Faeries, Pegasus', unicorns and sunny weather. She thought of travelling the world, saving endangered species of animals and discovering new ones. She thought of Goblins and evil witches with warts on their noses, of defeat, and triumph over evil. Amy wanted to go to her true home, how she thought the world should be. Not a place where hope and faith were not believed in, where all dreams are shattered and innocence quickly devoured. Her place. A place she would love. A place where it didn't rain all the time, a place where the stars shone bright in the sky every night, and all the people aren't all the same. Individuality, that's what she wanted.  
  
It was getting dark. The lamp-posts were all glowing. She rested her head against the window. 


	2. Chapter 2: What was He like?

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. *Sobs uncontrollably* anyway, hope u like the second chapter!!  
  
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Chapter 2  
  
"Amy, are you still up?" Amy woke with a start.  
  
"Yes, Mum" She replied  
  
"Well get to bed, and close that window, there's going to be a storm tonight, and a big one at that"  
  
"Really? How big?" Amy had always loved storms.  
  
"Amy?"  
  
"Yes"  
  
"Are you tired or something, you just drifted off" Amy's big sister, Laura, was sitting on her bed, watching her.  
  
"Yeah, I'm knackered."  
  
"Well get to bed" Laura had always been there for Amy, a great sister some would say, but Laura just didn't seem to understand her.  
  
"OK." Amy said, jumping off the window-ledge, and shutting the window, now with great difficulty, because that cool breeze had turned into a harsh wind, that didn't want to let Amy close it. With a final tug, she yanked it shut and pulled down the latch.  
  
"Well, good night!" Smiled Laura, knowingly.  
  
"Night" Replied Amy  
  
Amy walked to her bed, slipped off chocolate brown 'carpet sweepers' as her Mum, brother and sister called her extremely baggy trousers. She then put slightly less baggy, tartan bottoms. She took off her top and replaced it with a much worn, strappy one. She then pulled off her very long, stripy socks, and ambled into the bathroom. She cleaned her teeth, removed what was left of her make-up and took out 5 silver earrings from her ears and one small stud, shaped like a heart, from the side of her nose. She pulled out a chunky bobble which had held her long, shiny brown hair in a very messy ponytail. It fell, still messy, down to her elbows.  
  
She then clambered into bed, and lay, thinking - again. 'I wonder what Dad was like' her father had died when she was just 4 years old, 11 years ago. 'Mum never talks about him, and neither does Laura or Scott. It's like he died intentionally or something. Like he was nothing but trouble' Amy got very tired after all that thinking, so she fell asleep. 


	3. Chapter 3: Burnt to the ground, along wi...

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom hearts, so please don't kill me!!!  
  
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Chapter 3  
  
Amy woke up, suddenly. She could smell burning, and hear screaming. She immediately thought to save her Mum. She jumped out of bed, and ran down the hall, to her Mum's room, but she was stopped, for 2 reasons, one: her house was on fire, and two: she was blocked by her older brother, Scott.  
  
"Come on" He said "the Fireman are coming. Go wait outside, I was just coming to wake you up" He seemed very calm, but Amy overlooked this little glitch because of the fact that her house was on fire.  
  
"But how did-"Amy started, but never got to finish.  
  
"Get Downstairs" Said Scott, almost shouting. "OK, OK," Amy said, backing away, then running down the stairs as fast as she could, kinda creeped that Scott, the cool, calm, collected brother had actually almost shouted. She ran headlong into what she thought must be a Fireman- but dressed a bit oddly, Amy thought. He or she, Amy couldn't tell, rushed upstairs.  
  
Just then, Scott came rushing down the stairs and steered Amy out of the burning house. Laura was waiting for them.  
  
"Is Mum alright?" She asked, nervously.  
  
"I don't know yet" replied Scott "the firemen were just about to-"He paused, shocked. Amy and Laura slowly turned around, gob smacked. The house had suddenly burst up in flames, and the firemen all tried to put out the fire. Scott ran to help, too. But all Amy and Laura could manage was to stand still, frozen, hugging each other.  
  
It was now 7:00 a.m. They had been out there for 8 hours and the flames still hadn't died down. Amy and Laura were sat in little camping chairs with blankets wrapped around them, and had been offered hot chocolate by the friendly paramedic waiting for their Mum, but they had both said 'no' as they were kind-of in shock. Another half-hour went by, and eventually the flames died down. But there was no sign of Amy's Mum or any of the firemen. The remaining firemen and Scott rushed inside to check it out. Amy and Laura both got up, but were stopped by the Paramedic, so Amy screamed at her, and ran inside anyway.  
  
The house was completely black inside and everything was just burnt away, into ashes. There was a muffled shout from upstairs. One of the firemen, or Scott maybe, had found something.  
  
Or nothing  
  
It seemed that Scott was searching his Mum's room, which is where most of the action had happened, and had expected to find his Mum,  
  
But no-one was there. The things that had belonged to her were burnt, but not badly. They were knocked all over; there were signs that there had been a struggle of some sort. 


	4. Chapter 4: The Big Click

OK, the chappys seem to be getting longer, but here's your disclaimer anyway!

Kingdom hearts does not belong to meeeee, but I wish it did… -goes and cries- aaanyways, on with the story!

Chapter 4

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Apparently, the fire had started when the lightning hit a tree at the side of the house- right next to Amy's Mum's room- and it had set on fire. It had tipped over, and set the house on fire. None of the firemen offered any explanation about why the other firemen were acting weird. They couldn't come to a conclusion about what happened to Amy's Mum and the 3 firemen, although they did try very hard. Everyone left the burnt room, but Amy stayed there and made a promise to her supposedly dead mother. 

" I will avenge you" she knew that there wasn't anything to avenge on, except the tree which was now ashes anyway, and that it sounded stupid, but she also knew that there was more than meets the eye here, she just couldn't explain it. Scott and Laura went to live on their own, being 18 and 19, but Amy was sent to an orphanage, because she was only 15.

A year passed. Amy forgot her promise to her Mother, and lost all faith that her wish would come true.

All individuality was stamped out of her. She had been taken away from the house she had lived in for all her life, away from all her friends, and away from anywhere that she knew. Her orphanage was in a little town in the middle of no-where.

But one day, two travellers came, cloaked and apparently searching to adopt a 16 year-old girl. They were shown a not-so-long list of children, but they refused them all. Just as Ms. Smith, the old, fat, friendly owner of the orphanage put the files away, Amy's picture fell out. The man noticed it, and immediately picked it up and examined it.

"this is the one we want" the 2 people said, after the man had shown his girlfriend/ wife person.

"Oh, I'm not sure you-" said a blushing Ms Smith, not getting to finish her sentence, reaching for the photograph.

"This is the child we will take" said the man, quite sternly.

"She is a difficult child, problemed, one might say" Ms Smith struggled to find the 'right' words "to tell you the truth, we've had trouble getting anyone to adopt this one, so I've really just given up on her now"

"I see" said the woman. She was very beautiful, and her face was filled concern " may we at least see her? Talk to her maybe?" she had a warm, soft, comforting voice which lulled Ms Smith into saying

"Oh, alright then. I'll just go and find her. If you would like to follow me." She led the 2 to a room, with lots of cushiony red sofas and a coffee table in the middle.

"Sit down, make yourselves at home, you might be here a while. It takes a long time to get her out of her bedroom sometimes." Laughed Ms Smith. She ran, or jogged, as I said before, she is quite chubby, up the stairs, and banged on a door with a sign on saying:

'Do NOT come in!

PRIVATE!

Amy's room!'

"Amy" she called "there's two people here to see you"

"Tell them to sod off" replied Amy.

"I can't" said Ms Smith, worriedly "they look like they have travelled miles, and they want to see you"

"Well tell them to bugger off back where they came from and find someone else" said Amy. Ms Smith hesitated, deciding against telling Amy off for bad language, then opened the door. Amy was sitting on the window ledge, overlooking the garden, with a book rested against her tucked-up knees.

"Amy, darling" continued Ms Smith, then had an idea " I told them you had problems, you know, lacked those very important social skills, but it looks like I'm just going to have to tell them again…." She smiled, smugly and turned towards the door.

"You told them what!" asked Amy, menacingly "I don't have social problems!" she retorted, barging past and wrenching the door open "I'll deal with you later" she said, and with that, she rushed off, downstairs. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs, almost running into Sam, a boy who lived with her in the orphanage.

"Watch it!" he said, aware of the fact that Amy wasn't in a good mood, and wouldn't tangle with her even if she was in a good mood, and he ran off.

"Make me" she called up the stairs 'I'll get him later' she thought to herself 'but now, I have something more important to do' She peered through the little window in the door, to see them there, sitting waiting for her. They sensed they were being watched, and quickly looked up, as if suspicious that something really bad might be watching. Amy dodged to the right of the window quickly, so they didn't see her. She took a deep breath, and walked in. The woman looked up and smiled, and the man tried, but just ended up smirking. He was brown-haired, an unusual style, kind of long and spiky. He had blue-grey eyes, weather-beaten skin and a scar going across the bridge of his nose. The lady had brown hair scraped back into a plait with a few strands hanging loose at the front. She had warm, bright green eyes. They both stood up, and outstretched their hands for Amy to shake

"Yeah, whatever" said Amy, plopping herself down on a chair. They were obviously surprised at how rude she was, but Amy didn't mind, because that's what she was going for. A long, awkward silence followed, broken only by the smiley lady saying

"umm.. I'm Aerith, and this is Leon."

"Oh." Said Amy, fighting the impulse to talk to these people. She failed miserably. " those are weird names"

"Thankyou." Said Aerith, smiling, and thoroughly pissing Amy off, which was actually her aim. "Well, it's good to be different"

"Right. OK. Whatever you say" said Amy, unconvinced. "I used to be like that, too. But then I realised, the harder you try, the less you stand out. We're all the same in the end, we all care what people think, no matter what we say. You try so hard, but all you get is pain. All you get is your perfectly happy family being ripped apart, by a force yo-" she stopped. "Why am I telling you this?" Aerith was just about to say 'go on, we want to hear' when Leon nudged her. A silence followed then he himself spoke, for the 1st time.

"You have a brother and a sister, but they live somewhere else. Why didn't they look after you?" he knew this wasn't a topic Amy was keen on.

"How do you know that? Did Smith tell you?" asked Amy, disgusted.

"Aren't you cross with Laura and Scott for leaving you here?" said Leon. "Come on, let it all out"

"What are you, a child psychiatrist or something? And if you really wanna know, they fought very hard to keep me outta here"

"They didn't." Leon said, as bluntly as possible "In fact, they sent you here specifically. They knew they couldn't protect you anymore, they thought you would be safe, but you're not. That's why we're here. But we can't tell you now." As much as Amy wanted to argue back, when Leon looked straight into her eyes, she believed him. She felt something in the back of her mind go click! Like a part of her which had been forgotten turned on or something." OK," continued Leon "Here's the plan. Tomorrow, we will take you out." He suddenly seemed timid "Is that OK? I'll explain then"

"I s'pose" said Amy, thinking she had nothing to lose, but not really concentrating on that anyway, more on that click. "Good night" she walked upstairs, and went straight to bed.


	5. Chapter 5: The Weirdos arrive

Disclaimer: you all know, I don't own Kingdom hearts, but if I did. *rubs hands together evilly* *goes to plot with flashlights in all pockets*  
  
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Chapter 5  
  
The next day, Amy was up bright and early, waiting for those odd strangers which she somehow felt so intrigued by. The man, Leon, so quiet and broody, and the woman, Aerith, so beautiful, but she seemed so much in pain. Amy somehow felt a connection between her and Aerith.  
  
"Amy, those weirdos are here" called Sam up the stairs.  
  
"Coming" replied Amy, in a very good mood for the first time in a whole year. She grabbed her backpack and trotted happily down the stairs. She smiled weakly when she saw Aerith standing in the doorway, because her being had just confirmed that last night wasn't just a dream.  
  
"My God, what's wrong with you?" asked Sam, "you nearly smiled!!" Amy looked at him piercingly and he backed down. She grinned cheekily at Aerith who was still standing there. "Hi, sorry about him." Said Amy, apologetically. "where's Leon?"  
  
"Oh, he's in the car thingie" replied Aerith. Amy closed the door behind her and walked over to the very old and battered car. "your world is so.. odd" said Aerith.  
  
"Cars? I mean do they travel to other worlds?" Leon glared at Aerith when he saw the look on Amy's face. Amy sat on the back seat. He turned around and said "we'll tell you later" Amy had come over all shy, which was odd, she was never shy. She was quite squashed, as there was two other people sitting in the back, who she didn't know.  
  
"Oh, sorry." Said Aerith "this is Yuffie" she pointed to a girl not much older than Amy, with short black hair, big brown eyes and a lotta ninja stuff "and this is Cloud" she then pointed to a blond-haired blue-eyed guy with a long cloak and a big sword. Amy's first impulse was 'oooooh big sword' but she had to resist jumping on poor Cloud because she was now firmly setbelted into the car, and they were driving out of the driveway.  
  
"So, um, where are we going?" Asked Amy  
  
"You'll see" replied Leon.  
  
They drove. And drove. And drove. And drove. And then they drove a bit more.  
  
"Are we there yet?" moaned Amy  
  
"Yeah, Leon, this is sooooo boring, we've played about 100 games of 'I spy' now, and it's getting old now" Chipped in Yuffie.  
  
"Oh! I've got one!!" Cried Cloud "I spy with my little eye, something beginning with T!!" he smiled triumphantly. Everyone looked round at him, even Leon turned his concentration from the road to stare at Cloud for a minute. Only Amy wasn't surprised at his sudden outburst and quickly shouted  
  
"OOO!! Oo!! A tree!!!"  
  
"How did you get it?" Asked Cloud, ignoring the fact that Yuffie was still staring at him  
  
"Well that's all we've passed for a while now.." Said Amy, going back to being bored. "Are we there yet?" the road they were following suddenly turned into a dirt track. The dirt track led into a dense wood, winding through trees. Amy was getting a bit worried by this time. Aerith saw this and turned around to talk to her. Amy saw her looking and said  
  
"OK, I won't pretend this isn't getting a tiny bit weird." And to everyone's surprise, she actually smiled after saying these words.  
  
"Well you see, Amy," Aerith was searching her brain to find the right words. Just then, the car stopped.  
  
"Alright." Said Leon "everyone out, this is as far as this car will go"  
  
"You're just gonna leave it here?" Amy asked, surprised  
  
"Pretty much" replied Leon. Amy shrugged her shoulders, and thought to herself 'I'll leave it to the council' they all took to stretching for a few minutes.  
  
"So. um.. why are we here, you know, in a big. um.. Foresty thing?" asked Amy, completely confuzzled.  
  
"Well," Aerith began, but Yuffie cut across her.  
  
"You see, we all come from a different world than yours" Amy found this very hard to believe, and was just about to laugh, when she saw their faces. She looked right into each one's eyes, and somehow, she believed them.  
  
"Yes" she replied, as something her father once said to her came floating back into her mind. Aerith and Leon looked mildly surprised, as they hadn't managed to tell her little slither of information yet, but Yuffie carried on anyway. They started to walk as Yuffie spoke "We came together about a year ago, to stop an evil to outrank all others called the Heartless"  
  
"Heartless?" Amy repeated  
  
"Those without hearts" Said Cloud  
  
"Well I gathered that, Heart-less" Amy said, rolling her eyes  
  
"Well we gathered together to defeat them"  
  
"I see." Said Amy, then she added in a very puzzled voice "then why do you need me?"  
  
"Well last time, we managed to defeat them, but now, they're back, and they have a better plan which is better devised than the last."  
  
"And what is that plan?"  
  
"To catch you."  
  
"Why me?" Leon gave a little chortle  
  
"Every single living creature has a heart, right?"  
  
"Right"  
  
"You have the ability to take away a part of their heart that is crucial. The part of their heart that is made up of hope, faith and wishes. Without that, you would be alive, breathing, but you wouldn't be able to think, or feel, well, not your own thoughts, anyway." He paused, as if waiting for Amy to say something, but when she didn't, went on "the reason is, you are 100% pure of heart" Amy had been totally out of sarcastic comments to make, and was feeling really not herself, until Leon said this. Trying not to breathe a sigh of relief, she snorted and said  
  
"I highly doubt that"  
  
"It's true!" Said Leon, with a hint of desperation in his voice  
  
"Prove it" said Amy, coolly. Leon hesitated. He didn't like being proven wrong, so he wracked his brain for anything that might help him prove his case. He couldn't think of anything, so he was glad when Cloud spoke up for the first time since his little overexcitement in the car.  
  
"Alright then. That night. The night your mother died. Anyone strange involved?"  
  
"No" said Amy, quite firmly. Then she remembered. "Yes. The firemen who put my house out were acting kinda strange, and it was as if they didn't want to work out the whole deal with those firemen who went to 'rescue' my Mum, and my Mum's disappearing act."  
  
"Exactly" Replied Leon, triumphantly "And your father."  
  
"He's dead, too. Died ages ago. I can't even remember him." They all looked puzzled at this news  
  
"When exactly did your father die?" Aerith asked  
  
"Hmmmm.." Said Amy "about 11 years ago"  
  
"Well that's not right" Said Yuffie, in a I know something you don't know kind of voice "he only died, what, 2 years ago?"  
  
"Yup" said Cloud, in agreement. "He betrayed Sephiroth, when he was working In alliance with him. In the end, the Heartless got him."  
  
"Well it serves him right!" Said Amy, and she said it with such hate in her voice, everyone looked around at her in surprise. She had loved her father, and her family had told her he died when he had only gone away. The others were still looking at her in a puzzled way, and so, to break the uneasy silence, she added "Then why didn't anyone tell me? Laura? Scott? Anyone? I would have thought there is a big difference between dying and turning evil" she said sarcastically.  
  
"He wasn't completely evil" Aerith replied, quite calmly "he didn't tell Sephiroth or Maleficent or any of the Heartless where his family were, and especially the fact that his daughter was the one and only person in all the worlds that exist that is completely pure of heart, out of complete and un-breakable love for you." Amy was silent, but kept on walking. Suddenly, the dense canopy broke into nothing. They were in a clearing. 


	6. Chapter 6: A Gummi Whaa?

Disclaimer: Bah! Look to the other chapters!! Hope you like!!  
  
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Chapter 6 A ship stood in the middle. It looked to be made of blocks of some sort.  
  
"What the hell is that?" Asked Amy  
  
"This is our Gummi ship." Said Aerith., proudly. Then, at seeing the bewildered look on Amy's face, she added "How we travel from world to world."  
  
"Oh, I see." Said Amy "So why have you brought me here?" they all looked at each other uneasily. Then Cloud spoke.  
  
"We have brought you here to show you your destiny. Your fate awaits you. Whether you choose to follow that path is you decision." Said Cloud.  
  
"Fate? A path? Will you please show me the path that leads to me understanding what you're talking about?"  
  
"You choose. Either you come with us now be taken by the darkness." Said Yuffie  
  
"I might notify you to the fact that the future of the many worlds out there depend on this decision right now" Said Leon, a frown creasing his partially scarred forehead  
  
"So, no pressure" said Cloud, grinning, the others looking more and more concerned because of the fact that Cloud was showing any emotion rather than indifference to this girl. Amy sat on the floor. 'Me?' she thought to herself. She sat there for what must have been an hour, maybe two, she didn't know, didn't care more to the point, just thinking. It started to rain. Thick, heavy drops fell through the not-so- dense shelter of the woods. Yuffie, Aerith and Leon went inside the Gummi Ship, but Cloud sat next to Amy.  
  
"What' you thinking about?" He asked, in a strangely up-beat tone. No answer. "I know it's a big burden to carry, but you must trust us." Amy sighed.  
  
"It's not that I don't trust you. I trust all of you." Then she looked Cloud right in the eye, smirking, and said "Do you really think I would follow a bunch of strangers into a shady forest, despite the fact that they claimed to come from another world, if I didn't trust them?"  
  
"Good point. Well then, why are you sitting out here out in the rain?"  
  
"The other day, when Aerith spoke to me, it was like there was a connection, more than one. Something unlocked, clicked in the back of my mind." Cloud looked towards the Gummi Ship, now soaking wet.  
  
"Her home was destroyed by the Heartless, too, all of the people she loved taken away from her by them."  
  
"That's so sad." Amy said, without thinking, and then realised that was exactly what had happened to her. "I suppose that's the connection, then. But I get the feeling it goes deeper than that." They looked at the each other. Cloud obviously couldn't think of anything else to say, and the rain had just got heavier, with bigger drops, so Amy said "We best go then. No use sitting around here, when we could be zooming off to. ummm god knows where." Then she added as an after thought "The Gummi ship does zoom, doesn't it? Or does it glide smoothly like on Star Trek?" Cloud smiled, or more grinned. Amy was just about to enter the Gummi Ship, when Cloud finally said, from his tree-base  
  
"You'll find it. The connection between you and Aerith" Amy smiled. Somehow, she felt she was smiling inside, too.  
  
Inside the Gummi Ship was amazing. It was all one room with lots of controls. Cloud walked in just after Amy, who had walked in to find Leon, Yuffie and Aerith deep in conversation. They all looked up and all looked surprised to see her, apart from Aerith, who smiled, in a somewhat knowing way, although Amy didn't realise it. She was too busy giggling silently at their faces  
  
"She's decided to come with us!" Said Cloud, happily, as Amy was now bent double in silent hysterics at the looks on their faces.  
  
"OK, then" said Leon, recovering and getting up and walking over to a large- ish panel with lots of buttons and a big, comfy-looking swivel chair in front. Aerith patted the chair next to her, signalling to Amy to sit next to her. Amy did, and pretty soon the girls were all emerged in a conversation, when the lights suddenly went out, plunging them all into darkness. A cold voice spoke.  
  
"Hello. Mind if I join your lovely little group? Oh, and I've brought some friends along, I hope you don't mind" in the back of the Ship, there must have been at least 30 glowing eyes, quite near the floor, dancing and moving about, as if ready to pounce. For a while, the whole Gummi Ship sat frozen in silence, and then the lights flickered on again. They all blinked, there eyes not yet accustomed to the brightness. Amy quickly turned towards where she had seen the eyes. But there wasn't anything there. And then she realised. They were surrounding them. What were they going to do? Amy snapped her head round, as she had heard a noise. Leon had pulled out his sword, and struck a blow at one of the glowy-eyed creatures.  
  
"Shadows!" Cried Yuffie and everyone leapt up to fight them. All except Amy. As soon as she had clapped eyes on that 'shadow' thing, images of the night her Mother died kept on flashing back to her. Then, one very fuzzy, unclear one. Two bright yellow, big eyes peering out of a fireman's suit. Then she thought. That night, my Mum didn't die, they kidnapped her. These Shadow things. They must have thought it was me! They obviously know who I am! This isn't just to show they're back, but to get- but she had no more time to think- it happened so quickly she didn't even have time to scream.  
  
The battle was over. Leon, Yuffie, Cloud and Aerith had defeated the Heartless which had attacked them. They dumped themselves on the ground, exhausted and panting for breath.  
  
"Well, it looks like the Heartless are back, and stronger than ever." Said Leon.  
  
"Yeah" agreed Yuffie "But does it seem kinda- quiet?" they all looked around, jumped up, and shouted "AMY!" And then the frantic search for her began. But there was no sign of her anywhere in the one-roomed ship, and there weren't very many places to hide. They'd already checked in those at least 100 times, just in case. All of them failed, though. They slumped down in their chairs, and were all silent.  
  
Amy woke up in a dark room, lit only by a few candles. A figure in the corner noticed that she had woken up and walked slowly on towards her. She was on some sort of platform, and all she could see was the figure of a man, with a sword and shining silver hair, and a massive black wing, which was unfolding slowly, all adding to the sense of horror. Amy felt she had never been so scared in all her life, and wanted to scream out. Slowly, he spoke to her, as if he needed to get this message across to her, but she couldn't understand English  
  
"My name is Sephiroth." Amy gasped.  
  
"You're the one they told me about" Amy said "The one that my father betrayed."  
  
"Oh, I'm flattered. I didn't know you'd noticed me." He pretended to blush.  
  
"Umm. I couldn't have noticed you if I only just met you?" said Amy, in what she hoped was a confidently horrible way. (A/N- that is, if that exists!)  
  
"Oh, yes, you've met me before. In your dreams. Only your subconscious was aware of my tracking device which keeping an eye on you and that lovely little pure heart of yours at all times. Naturally, I knew you were going to go somewhere 'safe' when I watched you move into that forest"  
  
"You. you've been watching me?" said Amy, she just wanted to wake up in her gloomy bed in the orphanage, or run and hide, but then a part of her that had never emerged yet spoken out, a part that was courageous and curious spoke up. She tilted her head to one side and looked at Sephiroth like she was merely puzzled, and said "Why were you doing that?" she clapped her hand to her mouth, and pretended to be immersed in thought, and horrified that someone would do that, but Sephiroth didn't notice. He was too busy being surprised at the fact that Amy hadn't backed down or stuttered at all yet.  
  
"Well, now, that's quite a good story, actually. As you probably know, the night your house was burnt down and your mother was tragically murdered." He paused for effect, hoping for a 'she wasn't murdered' from Amy, but she knew what he was doing, and she was determined not to play his game.  
  
"Actually, how did they murder her?" asked Amy, knowing she wasn't going to like the answer.  
  
"Aren't you just full of questions today? Well I expect the Heartless took her heart, she wasn't any use to us, such a weak heart, though, all she could talk about was you, and how she failed in her job protecting you or something, and you would find out someday and never forgive her for not telling you."  
  
"Oh." Was all Amy could manage  
  
"Yes. Well, anyway, the night those Heartless kidnapped and killed your Mother, they actually got it wrong. They were after you." "I knew that" Said Amy, rolling her eyes. "But it was lucky- for you, I mean- that you picked that night, because no-one knew what was going on 'cause of the fire. Shame those Heartless were too stupid to tell the difference between me and my Mum." Sephiroth laughed at the first part, a cruel laugh, one that didn't faze Amy, which annoyed him, but stopped abruptly at the last bit, as Amy had guessed he would. He finally managed to recover, though.  
  
"Haven't you guessed, we thought your Mother was you, so we set that tree on fire and tipped it onto the roof of what we thought was thought your room, knowing that it would be blamed on the lightning."  
  
"Oh, I see" said Amy "so wanted my heart, not my Mum's.  
Wait a minute; you haven't brought me here to do that now, have you?" Asked Amy, but it was a stupid question. She knew the answer before she asked it.  
  
"Well, actually, yes" Said Sephiroth, smirking. Metal bars clamped down her arms and legs. Amy jumped, as they just appeared from widening gaps in the iron-bed thing, and then stopped with a jolt and loud. *Thud!*  
  
Back in the Gummi Ship, Cloud refused to believe that they had let Amy get kidnapped already, so he went for a final look around the Gummi Ship, and found a stowaway, hidden, in a place they had actually looked in before. Mumbling about them not being able to spot a glowing eyed thing shoved in a corner, he set off back to the others.  
  
"Hey, you guys, look what I found!" he said, with the fidgeting Shadow still in his tight grasp. "Can I kill it?"  
  
"NO!!" cried Leon, immediately, "I have a better plan. Heartless feed on fear in a being with a heart, so they'll go to it, like with Sora, so I reckon this little one'll be able to track down Amy."  
  
"OK" everyone replied. They started trying to communicate to it what they wanted, but in the end, Cloud got bored and used all the swearwords he knew in a very long winded threaten. It seemed to get the jist, and they managed to follow him towards a dark looking ship.  
  
At the same time, in the ship, a Shadow had just appeared in front of Amy and had started doing a weird dance, and Sephiroth let go of his evil smirk to make way for an evil chuckle, which progressed into full-on hysterics- you know the way all the evil people do nowadays. He managed to recover just to say  
  
"You see, Amy, if we take your heart, the whole of man-kind and anything else with a heart will lose that tiny fraction of their heart with Faith and hope, all the wishes they make, all the measly little dreams they might have are made and stored. And they will be destroyed when we destroy you!! Because," he said, and he drew closer, so that Amy was in line with his face "that's all you are. Hope and faith on legs. It will make it much easier to take all their hearts that way." He smirked, and his eyes glittered menacingly.  
  
"You won't succeed!!" cried Amy, "they will come for me! I know they will!" she shouted, willing herself to believe it. Something glittering drifted out of Amy's chest. It turned out it was her heart  
  
'This is it' she thought 'The end of the road.'  
  
She stopped struggling, and collapsed on the steel bed.  
  
Just then, Cloud, Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith burst in, to see a dead Amy lying on a steel platform, a Shadow 'dancing', and Sephiroth laughing. At the sight of Amy, lying there, Leon didn't feel sad, but felt an anger surging through him such as he had never felt before. He charged forward and killed his little heartless stowaway, and then signalled to the rest to follow him. He killed the one standing next to Amy, and were attacking Sephiroth, when something flickered, in the shadows, but none of them noticed, because they were all focused on the army of Heartless making their way stedily towards them, not flinching when they drew their weapons. A battle got underway, and in all the emotion (only coming off Leon, Yuffie, Cloud and Aerith) and chaos, Sephiroth managed to escape. They won, the last Heartless was killed, and Cloud stood, with his sword still outstretched, in the position he had killed the last Gargoyle in, thinking exactly the same thing as he knew everyone else was. There was no hope for them now, they had killed many Heartless, but there would be more. There would always be more. And with this in mind, they would get taken, too. He thought he was thinking like this because now Amy was gone, they didn't have the Hope and stuff, but didn't really care. Sephiroth would come back with an army stronger and larger than anything any of them had faced. They trudged back to the Gummi Ship in silence. They opened the door, and all saw something they weren't expecting.  
  
Someone was sat in Leon's chair, swirling around. It was Amy.  
  
"Amy!!" cried Aerith, running up to her. Leon managed to drag Amy out of his chair and sit her down next to Aerith, but only just.  
  
"Ow! You've got sharp nails!" he cried, and Amy plonked herself down on a chair, looking triumphant. There was definitely something different about her. Aerith looked at Leon, then continued  
  
"We thought you were dead!" she cried, hugging Amy.  
  
"So did I" replied Amy, the triumphant look fading. It was now one of mild concern. " I think I was- I mean only for a few minutes- but then I woke up, I think" she said, shifting in her chair " when you killed that heartless, the ritual stopped, it was interrupted, and my heart kind-of fell back to where it should have been, I guessed that straight away, because it wasn't floating above me anymore." Aerith shuddered. "I kinda lost my memory for a while, and you lot battling with those Heartless scared me, so I ran away. I guess I was in shock. But then I found the Ship, and it made me remember. I thought it was too dangerous to go back and find you, so I waited here. Plus, I wanted to see your faces- they were kinda funny." They all looked at her, puzzled. "I know what you're all thinking, and I think the reason you didn't give up was because my heart was never whole." She got even more puzzled looks, but ignored them and carried on. "I had this dream thing, you see, when I was.. umm. dead. It was one I'd had before. I dreamt I saw a man, I think my Dad, in a long, black cloak, meeting up with a young woman. He gave her something, something glowy and pretty. But I couldn't see what it was because he kept it covered." Amy paused, thinking. "Well, anyway, the woman took it, and rushed off, into the night. It wasn't a place I'd ever been before, though, so it wasn't like I knew what was going on or anything, just that I'd had this dream before." Amy paused again, but clearly hadn't finished, so after a moments silence, she continued " the woman wore it for a while, and then, she was sleeping, and it looked as though she'd had a nightmare, so she gave it to her daughter. Then she was killed by the Heartless, and her daughter only just got away, so after that, they hunted her. So the girl put the thing in a little bottle and sailed it away, out to sea. I suppose she knew that if the Heartless got her, then it could be a very strong weapon for them." There was silence in the Gummi Ship, and they decided it would be better if they got going. Aerith sat next to Amy, obviously deep in thought, so Amy talked to Yuffie for a while. From time to time, Aerith would open then close her mouth, as if she wanted to speak, but then decided against it. Leon had steered the Gummi Ship near a planet of some sort, so Yuffie went to talk to him for a while. Cloud had just been sitting in one of the farthest seats for the whole journey, so as not to embarrass himself like he seemed to do a lot around Amy.  
  
"It was a necklace" said Aerith to Amy, finally. Seeing the puzzled look on Amy's face she added "That thing. A locket with part of your heart in."  
  
"Huh?" was all Amy could manage In reply.  
  
"The woman you saw was my Mother. I was the one who sailed it away on a boat."  
  
"Ohhhhhh. So that's the connection!!" cried Amy, jumping up, and glancing at Cloud.  
  
"Do you know where the necklace is now?" she asked  
  
"No" said Aerith, simply, "But its comforting to know that the Heartless will never be able to get your full heart without that necklace." And with that, Aerith, Yuffie and Amy began a very long, girlie conversation. 


	7. Chapter 7: Sad to Say Goodbye

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, or and of the characters, save Amy. Lalaaalaaa  
  
*********************************************************************  
  
Chapter 7  
  
It was ages until the Gummi Ship finally jolted to halt and Leon got up and called "I'm going to go have a look around"  
  
"Can't I come? I need a walk" whined Amy, fluttering her eyelashes.  
  
"Let's all go!!" put In Yuffie  
  
"Oh, great, let's have a Teddy Bear's Picnic while we're at it!" mumbled Leon, under his breath. So they all got out of the Gummi Ship and onto a sandy beach. It was night-time, and a warm-ish breeze was blowing. Everyone launched into a debate about whether or not they should disturb someone, because everyone on this tiny island was obviously asleep. They were talking about someone in particular, Amy couldn't catch their name, but she saw a silhouette of an oddly-shaped tree on a kind of platform which jutted out to sea. She decided to take a walk and quietly slipped away without being noticed. As she crossed the bridge, she saw a boy, sitting on the tree gazing into the starry sky, absent-mindedly fingering a chain around his neck, his longish silver hair blowing gently in the breeze.  
  
"Beautiful night, huh?" said Amy, leaning against a very tall, thin coconut tree, gazing out to the horizon herself.  
  
"It is" replied the boy, not seeming to notice the fact that he'd never the girl in his whole life.  
  
"Can I sit with you?" Asked Amy  
  
"Course" said the boy, moving over. She sat, her long, brown hair streaming behind her. They both got lost in their own thoughts, scanning the briefly, so when Cloud shouted "C'mon, squirt, we're goin' back to the Ship" it brought them both back to earth with a bump, and Amy shouted back  
  
"K, be with you in a minute" then she turned to the boy and said "well, it was nice meeting you" and with that, she ran half way across the bridge and then jumped off the edge, landing crouched on the sand. She jumped up and ran across the sand, to the rest.  
  
Riku woke up one very sunny morning, even for his Island, and had the funniest feeling. 'I had the weirdest dream last night.' He thought to himself as he walked down to Sora's house. On the way there, he bumped into Tidus and Wakka, deep in conversation.  
  
"So you say it's a mysterious girl, ya?" Wakka was asking Tidus.  
  
"Yeah. At Sora's house. He's talking to her and her security guard people, well that s what Selphie said, anyway." Tidus broke off at seeing Riku. "Hi, Riku, looking for Sora and Kairi?"  
  
"Yeah, have you seen them?"  
  
"At Sora's house."  
  
"Thanks, bye." Riku carried on walking in the direction of Sora's house, and got a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach.  
  
"I knew I should have had breakfast" he mumbled to himself. Sora's Mum opened the door with a concerned look on her face.  
  
"Hi, Riku, come in, Sora and Kairi are upstairs."  
  
"Thanks." Said Riku, and dashed upstairs to Sora's room. There was a sign on the door saying  
  
' Sora's room' which had always been there, but underneath there was a new one, made out of paper, which read:  
  
' Do Not Disturb.' Riku knocked and said  
  
"Sora, it's me. Can I come in?" there was a pause, and mumbles from inside. Sora and Kairi's voices could be heard saying things like: 'it's only Riku, he's not gonna hurt her.' And 'we cant just leave him out there.' Then Sora's voice called  
  
"Yeah, it's OK, Riku, you can come in." he pushed the door open timidly, to see Sora and Kairi sitting in chairs by Sora's desk, and 4 people, surrounding a girl about his age, sitting on the bed. Riku couldn't help but notice that she was very pretty, but familiar looking. He felt that feeling in his tummy again. When the girl saw him, she smiled.  
  
"Oh. Hello again." She said, cheerfully. Then he realized, the dream he'd had last night hadn't been a dream at all, it was real.  
  
"Oh, um, hi" he replied, and Sora looked at him suspiciously. It wasn't like Riku to go all not-knowing-what-to say like.  
  
"Amy, you know him?" A gorl with big brown eyes and short black hair said. She was standing next to the girl.  
  
"Yeah, I think so" said Amy. "I thought it was a dream, but obviously not."  
  
"When did you meet him?" said a concerned looking blond man, also standing near her.  
  
"It's alright, Cloud. It was last night when we landed and had a look round, you know, you were all arguing about that person."  
  
"Oh. Well, lets get on then" said a dark- haired man with a scar across his face. "Sora. As I was saying before, we need your help. We need you to protect Amy here." They obviously knew Sora.  
  
"OK, yeah, I will" said Sora, "but I don't understand. She looks like an ordinary girl, why would the Heartless want her?"  
  
"Well thank you very much" said Amy, in a very sarcastic, mock offended voice. The blond man ruffled her hair and said in a quiet voice:  
  
"Shut up, squirt."  
  
"Well actually," Said Amy, forgetting to drop her sarcastic tone and smoothing out her hair. "you lot haven't told me what I'm doing in the presence of this ordinary looking, but quite charming young, um. Sora wasn't it?"  
  
"Yeah, that's my name" said Sora, thinking it would be un-professional to laugh, but Kairi seemed to think different, and gave a little giggle.  
  
"So, Leon, tell us. What's she doing here?" asked Kairi  
  
"Well, it's a long story." Said Leon, and they explained the whole Sephiroth, orphanage thing that had happened.  
  
"So, that's it" said Cloud. " but you wanted to know what she's doing here. OK, how to break this down so that Amy can understand." Cloud 'thought' out loud. Amy turned around and gave him a playful punch.. on the leg, seeing as that was what was nearest. Yuffie giggled, Leon agreed, and Aerith began  
  
"Well, she's pure of heart, right?"  
  
"Right" Sora and Amy said together.  
  
"So the heartless are naturally gonna find this necklace, then find her, so they can take over, right?"  
  
"Right"  
  
"So, it's easy, we leave her with the Keyblade Master to protect her while we try and stop them."  
  
"Right"  
  
"But you're probably thinking well why not make it so the Keyblade Master goes to stop the Heartless and we look after Amy?" continued Aerith  
  
"Because we've had enough of her!" said Cloud, playfully, and got another punch in the leg. Aerith ignored this and carried on.  
  
"Because, Sora, you are the only one that can protect Amy fully. You are the one that posseses the Heart made up of more than a tiny bit of Faith, Hope and wishes yourself. Oh, and your friends seem quite keen to help as well" she added as an afterthought, but rightly as Kairi and Riku, along with Sora himself, were interested in finding out more about this girl who had appeared from nowhere.  
But obviously the feeling wasn't mutual, as it had just dawned on Amy that she would have to leave Leon, Yuffie, Cloud and Aerith. Sora stood up.  
  
"Looks like I have no choice but to accept. But, where's she gonna stay?" he said.  
  
"I suppose she can stay with me" said Kairi. Amy was sitting there, only just beginning to feel the realness of this. Realizing it wasn't just a wacky dream she was having. These were the only real friends she had ever had, and now they were leaving. She would probably never see them again. Beginning to understand the danger she was in, and that she should be feeling scared, but all she could feel was sorrow. Somehow, she felt safe in the hands of this 15-year-old Keyblade Master, and wasn't afraid if those Heartless, but she felt so sad. Her friends were going to leave her and there was nothing she could do about it.  
They were on the sandy beach of the Destiny Islands, and Amy was about to say goodbye. Leon walked up to her, or rather shuffled up to her, and said  
  
"Well, it's been fun. Well. kind of."  
  
"Yeah." Replied Amy, feeling really sad. Leon hugged her quite awkwardly, and at first Amy didn't know what to do, but then she just thought 'sod it' and almost jumped on him. They broke apart. Yuffie came next and they hugged, and when they finished, Amy felt like she just hit rock bottom. Amy couldn't think of anything to say, and neither could Yuffie, so they just looked at each other, and when Yuffie looked into Amy's eyes, she saw right into her heart.  
  
"I'm crap at goodbyes" Aerith said, so out of character, that Amy looked up at her from her awkward position while hugging madly.  
  
"It's not goodbye" Amy said. "We *are* gonna see each other again, I'll make sure of that."  
  
"Bye then, squirt" said Cloud, trying to get out of hugging.  
  
"Don't think you're getting away" Amy said, as she grabbed hold of his arm and hugged him. And as she did, a single tear rolled down her cheek.  
  
"Awwww, come on, nothings that bad." Said Cloud, as it shimmered in the setting sun, before he wiped it off. Somehow, Amy felt happy when she saw him smile.  
  
"Think of the good times we all had together, I mean, you even got a tiny smile outta Captain Broody here."  
  
"Whatever" Said Leon, then he smiled and winked. And it was at that moment that Amy decided she was genuinely happy, for the first time in her life.  
  
"Yeah, Sora will take good care of you." Said Yuffie "So we best be off" they each got another hug, and then said goodbye to everyone, got in the Gummi Ship, and then disappeared through a warp hole. There was an awkward silence when Amy finally stopped waving, and then Kairi said:  
  
"Hey, I'll show you where you're staying."  
  
"OK" they ran off to Kairi's house, leaving Sora and Riku to stand with their eyebrows raised at each other. 


	8. Chapter 8: I cant think of a decent chap...

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, blablablaaaa. And now, on with the storyyy. hey, I want ice cream.  
  
*********************************************************************  
  
Chapter 8  
  
Kairi's room was amazing. Amy guessed the type of person she was just from glancing around. There were furry stuffed toys, cushions, and a big dressing table. From all this, Amy knew they were going to be friends. In fact, it was just like her old room when she looked around. Amy realised now what that click had meant, she was transforming back into her old self, the one which had faith and hope and wished all the time. The one that had made that promise to as good as dead mother, and intended on keeping it.  
  
It was around noon, and the three friends, recently turned 4, were sitting on the Paopu Tree, as Sora wouldn't let Amy out of his sight,  
  
"I made a promise and I intend to keep it." He had said, when Amy had grumbled about him waking her up dead early. They had just been talking there all day, like they had known each other for ever.  
  
The day passed so quick, and finally Amy asked the question she had been bottling up ever since she witnessed Leon fight that day. "So, Sora, will you teach me how to fight one of these days?" Amy said. Sora looked up at Amy from his lying down position, and looked very uncomfortable.  
  
"Sure, why not?" he replied, doing a sort-of shrug in the shoulder region. It was getting late. "I think I'm gonna head off for bed." She said.  
  
"Yeah, me too. See ya in the mornin'" sora waved.  
  
"Race you!" said Kairi, jumping up and running off.  
  
"Hey! No fair! You got a head start!" Sora shouted, running after her. Riku laughed, and then waited for Amy to say something. But she didn't, only because she was waiting for Riku to speak, though. The awkward silence continued, and Amy stared out at the setting Sun, just thinking how beautiful it was. But then she saw a star, shining brightly. She thought this was a bit odd considering the time, but it was shining very brightly. That distracted her thoughts of this night being so beautiful, but, for some reason, she began to think back to her old house. She felt maybe this was the place she was supposed to have been all her life, the place she was supposed to end up.  
  
"Penny for your thoughts?" riku asked, finally.  
  
"Aww, you don't have to pay, I'm not thinking much, just the usual stuff, you know." She didn't want to let on about what she was really thinking of.  
  
"urmmm.. No, tell me." Riku said, turning to face Amy. He thought maybe he could get her to like him after all. And then he thought some more, he'd never actually had to get someone to like him before, they just had.  
  
"Well," Amy started, not knowing that she was about to tell him. She turned and looked at him, too. "Have you ever felt you don't belong?"  
  
"No, not really." Said Riku, simply  
  
"Well that's exactly what I felt in my world. I was different, and now I know how. But I'm wondering, because with Leon and Aerith and everyone, I felt more at home, but here, I don't feel different at all. And yesterday, Kairi showed me around everywhere, and it was like I knew it all.  
  
"Weird. So basically, you're saying you like it here." Said Riku, a little timidly. "am I right?"  
  
"Sort of." Amy replied, trying not to sound too sappy. "Fine, then. Yes, I think it's great here. Happy now?"  
  
"Sort of." Replied Riku, mockingly "But first you have to tell me why. Is it the island itself, the ummmm. accommodation, or." he said, getting to the objective of the whole question, "the people?"  
  
"Hmmm.." Amy said, pretending to think, " the island.. Beautiful. The accommodation, magnifique!" she gave a french chef kiss "mmm.. But as for the people.. You're pushing your luck there, matey"  
  
"Really?" said Riku, thinking he might as well play along.  
  
"Yeah, I mean, I've met better people in a pig sty!" she joked.  
  
"I'll get you for that!" replied Riku  
  
"You'll have to catch me first" said Amy, jumping down from her tree-branch and running away.  
  
"I'll get you!" shouted Riku, running after her. Amy jumped down onto the beach and ran into the sea. When Riku came up behind her to try and catch her, she waded farther in, and ran through at waist-height. Riku swam, and was much quicker, so when Amy got soaked by a huge wave and pulled underneath for a few seconds, he caught her. He grabbed her round the ribs by accident, not knowing that Amy was extremely ticklish there. She jumped, and screamed  
  
"Hey! I'm ticklish!" 


	9. Chapter 9: This isn't goodbye

Aaaaaaaaaand they're getting shorter again!!! Sorry, but I'm odd. Its not my fault!! Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the characters.  
  
******************************************************************** Chapter 9  
  
The next day, they began building a tree-house for Amy to live in, about 1 mile off the coast. They built it in a big, thick trunked tree, with branches sprawling out everywhere. At the end of the day, they had finished the floor.  
Exhausted, they climbed down and sat on the beach together.  
  
"So, what was your world like?" Sora asked Amy.  
  
"Well, it wasn't as beautiful as here. Sure we had beaches like this one, but we didn't live right next to one. It was always polluted, car fumes and stuff like that. Life just seemed to go so much faster there. The only place I really liked was my room, but then that got burned down, so.." She trailed off, and then started up again. "I like it much better here. You all are your own person, not what the fashion of the week tells you to be." Amy replied. They spent the next few days just building Amy's new house, and then at the end of the day just sitting, watching the sun set and talking.  
  
After a few weeks, Amy had properly moved in to her new tree-house, and it was like she had lived on the Destiny Islands all her life. She was friends with everyone on the island, and Amy, Riku, Sora and Kairi were inseperable.  
  
But one morning, almost 1 year after Amy had arrived on the Island, Sora and Kairi burst into Amy's room.  
  
"Amy! Amy, are you OK?" yelled Sora  
  
"Mm.. wha?" Amy woke up "yeah, I'm fine. What's up?"  
  
"Phew" said Kairi, and heaved a sigh of relief. "Its just that Riku has been taken by the heartless but there was no sign of a struggle. It was like he wanted to go or something" Sora nodded  
  
"Its true" he said. Amy quickly got up got dressed.  
  
"Well, what's gonna happen?" she asked "they'll probably come back for me"  
  
"We'll just have to wait and see" said Sora, still clutching onto Oathkeeper. They waited for what seemed like hours on end, not talking. When Amy was just starting to feel like nothing was ever going to happen, the door flung open with such force that it rebounded off the wall.  
  
Sora stood up and held the Keyblade ready, standing in front of Amy to protect her. Kairi stood up, and held Amy's hand, ready to drag her out of the room if need be. But the need didn't be, because it was Leon, with Yuffie, Aerith and Cloud standing behind him.  
  
"Well, I'm glad to see that you're keeping a firm watch over Amy, Sora" said Leon, a trace of a smirk flashing across his face.  
  
"Leon!" shouted Amy, running towards him, and giving him a huge hug. The next few minutes followed with Amy just running around madly hugging everyone.  
  
"So," Said Leon, just catching his breath after being pratically squeezed to death.  
  
"The Heartless found the one with the necklace, before we could even get so much as any trace of information about.. Ermm.. It."  
  
"Yeah," Agreed Yuffie. "We didn't know who it was, and the Heartless were obviously 1 step ahead of us"  
  
"And your friend, Riku, has been taken because apparently Sephiroth is very persuasive." Said Cloud. " So we really need to be sure that Amy is safe."  
  
"In other words, you're taking her with you." Said Kairi, tearfully.  
  
"It's not that you weren't doing a good job of keeping her safe," Said Aerith " we need her in our own sight at all times."  
  
"But you said I was the only one who could protect her fully" said Sora, defiantly.  
  
"Yes, but now the circumstances have changed, because now Riku is involved," Began Leon  
  
"And he's fighting for the wrong side" cut in Yuffie.  
  
"And you might cut him some slack because he's your friend, which would not be very good." Continued Leon.  
  
"You will bring her back, though, you know, when you've finished and everything." Said Sora, looking pitifully sad, but there was hope in his eyes, and that was all Amy needed.  
  
"But why would Riku go with them? I refuse to believe that he would go with them willingly." Kairi said, speaking out her thoughts. Amy agreed with Kairi. Over the past year or so, she had felt a strange sort of bond between Riku and herself, but never could explain it. Sora and Kairi were her best friends, but Riku was more than that. Kairi was there to be girly with, and she appreciated Amy because before she only had Sora and Riku, and so appreciated Amy for that. Sora was Amy's protector, and a close friend as well. But Riku didn't have to be there, didn't have a specific role, but he was, like he was there simply because he wanted to be. And now he was gone. Taken by evil.  
Suddenly Amy felt strong in her heart, sort of courageous. She wanted to do her bit for mankind. It was time to save the world.  
  
"Come on, squirt" Said Cloud, heading out of the door.  
  
"Coming." Amy called back. She turned to Kairi and Sora and hugged them. "I won't miss you." She said, defiantly. "Because I know that I'll be back very soon, and you will always be in my heart, giving me strength." She turned and walked slowly after Cloud. 


	10. Chapter 10: Memories are there for you t...

Ok, and its got longer again!! Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, so on and so forth and etc and all those other stuff  
  
********************************************************************  
  
Chapter 10  
  
Amy had been away from Yuffie, Leon, Cloud and Aerith for about 11 months now, but it felt like so much longer. It was almost her 17th birthday now, just after Riku's and they had a lot to talk about.  
  
"So, where are we off to?" asked Amy, to no-one in particular.  
  
"To face our destinies, er. again" replied Leon.  
  
"Ah. But where exactly are our destinies leading us?" said Amy, stroking her chin mockingly, although she wasn't quite sure why she was mocking. But she could see where they were going by now. "back to that ship? Oh god, the décor there was just horrific" she made a stupid face. She knew now why she was being so sarcastic, it was nerves. But the others obviously hadn't got that. They all looked at her in a shocked manor, surprised at how quickly she had got over her death.  
  
"Uh, Amy, are you alright?" Aerith asked.  
  
"Yeah, sure" said Amy, shrugging "I mean, why shouldn't I be? We're only going back to the very place where I died" Everyone looked at her again, now understanding why she'd acted the way she had. But after a while she said. "But why should I be afraid? I died there once, but this time I'm not gonna die. Because if I die, they win, and that isn't going to happen. They aren't good enough for that. Its time to face my fear, and I can beat it. There's no point in running away from it my whole life."  
  
"You really feel strongly about this, don't you?" Yuffie said, in a sort of rhetorical question type-way. (A/N me not making sense again!)  
  
"Yes." Said Amy, not realizing. "but what about Riku, I mean it just makes me so mad. I mean he made one wrong move, and snap, now he's fighting on the other side?" She clenched her fists.  
  
"That's just how the game's played" said Cloud. "but you must remember, that dragged along with evil might not have been his plan, it's very easy to do. You just have to lose sight of reality for one second, that 1 second where you want something so bad, all you can see is that thing, and they just pounce on you, and take advantage of your state of mind."  
  
"We're here." Said Leon, in a voice that was supposed to calm, but shook a little.  
  
They stepped out onto a platform, and walked through a black door. They walked along a dark corridor that led into a vast empty room, with a few candles just floating about in mid-air. Someone stepped out from the shadows.  
  
"We've been expecting you, but not this soon, obviously we gave you too little credit." The voice said. Amy stepped forward.  
  
"Riku?" she spoke to the darkness "is that you?"  
  
"If you want to know, you'll have to catch me first." Said the voice, and they heard footsteps in front of them, fading away, then a door opening and slamming.  
  
"Looks like we have no choice but to follow it." Said Leon, pulling out Lionheart and running after the voice. They ran straight ahead, and soon came to a door. They opened it and stepped cautiously through. Heartless attacked from all around them. But this time, Cloud kept Amy protected and when they had killed all the Heartless, they walked on. They walked into the middle of this huge room, bigger than the first one, and darker too. Suddenly, little candles flickered everywhere. More Heartless attacked, but Amy had spotted something way over the other side of the large room, and sprinted towards it, winding through all the Heartless, which promptly tried to attack, but just got kicked or punched.  
  
"Riku!" she shouted, as she drew level with him.  
  
"Hi." Riku said, as casually as if they had just bumped into each other on Destiny Islands.  
  
"Riku, why, and how, are you here?" Amy asked him.  
  
"Because I realized that I might as well join with the side that's clearly going to win."  
  
"Even if it means-" Amy paused "killing me? Doesn't the fact that I'm supposed to be your friend mean anything?"  
  
"Oh, come on" said Riku, smirking. "we all know your end was going to be untimely and bloody"  
  
"That's not you talking" said Amy, trying desperately to fight back tears. Riku smirked even more.  
  
"Well who is it then?" said Riku, knowing that Amy wouldn't have an answer. "oh, come on, you're boring me" he went on, drawing his sword. Amy knew he was serious, and looked frantically around for something to defend herself with. She thought to herself 'I need a weapon, if I don't, I'm dead' and just as she thought it, a sword which looked to be completely of light appeared in her hand. She gave Riku a quirky smile, her confidence almost returning.  
  
"Hey, you cheered up!" said Riku, sarcastically, but he said it as though he did care  
  
"Well done. It'll make you a bit more enjoyable to kill than before" he jabbed at Amy, and she closed her eyes, ready to feel a cold rapier blade pierce her side, but instead she felt the vibrations, and heard the clang of metal-on-metal, as she had raised her sword without meaning to. But she was glad. By this time, the others had defeated the Heartless which had attacked them, and Yuffie stepped forward to help Amy, but Cloud and Leon stopped her.  
  
"This is Amy's battle" said Leon. Meanwhile, Riku had thrown Amy across the room; she hit a wall, and landed in a crumpled heap on the floor. Riku sprang towards her, and Amy frantically tried to crawl away on her hands and knees, towards where her sword had fallen, but he was faster, and she fell. Riku put his blade up against Amy's throat. A platform rose up, like one she had seen before, and before Amy knew it, her legs and arms where bolted down once more. She shouted for the others, but it was no use. She heard a click, and glanced across the room, to see that they had been tied down.  
  
"Riku, don't do this," Amy cried, unable to hold her tears in any longer.  
  
"And why shouldn't I?" Riku asked.  
  
"Because. because.." Amy was in a lot of pain, as somehow she seemed to have a deep gash in her leg. But it didn't matter anyway, because Sephiroth cut her off.  
  
"Good work, boy." He said, smirking. He turned and saw Amy just lying there, looking helpless and heartbroken. He raised his eyebrows slightly in pity, but then shook the feeling away, he had never felt anything like that before.  
  
"Because" Amy said, feeling she had to get this out, or at least had to try. "Because.. I love you." Amy struggled to speak, she had lost a lot of blood through the gash in her leg, but managed to look up to meet Riku's eyes, and saw everlasting nothingness. And for one moment, she didn't love him.  
  
She hated him.  
  
Riku saw the hurt in Amy's eyes, in her heart, but it was too late. Sephiroth pushed Riku, and he fell onto a hard stone platform, which had just risen up from the ground. Bars snapped down around his arms and legs, trapping them in place.  
  
"Awww, Riku, she loves you. Do you return the feeling?" Sephiroth asked, sarcastically "oh, sorry, stupid question, we all already know the answer." Sephiroth snatched a silver chain from around Riku's neck. Aerith gasped.  
  
"That's." she began, but Leon shushed her.  
  
"Yes, the necklace containing part of this girls heart." Sephiroth examined it, then threw it on the floor. Everyone looked from him to the necklace, surprised. "it's useless. You see, when these two secretly fell in love, Amy's heart somehow bonded with Riku's."  
  
"That means-" Riku began  
  
"Yes, now I have to get your heart, too"  
  
"You tricked me!" Riku yelled, struggling against the bars.  
  
"Well, what was I supposed to do, just stroll up to you casually and say 'hey, Riku, you fell in love with the Pure Hearted one, and now I have to kill you.' Could I? you'd never come with me!" another shadow appeared and started that weird dance next to Riku.  
  
"Looks like you'll never keep that extremely cute promise to your dead Mother" said Sephiroth, smugly, walking away.  
  
"Take. that. back." said Amy, breathing heavily, still really struggling to speak. Sephiroth stopped, but didn't turn around, and laughed, a cold laugh, and then carried on walking. Amy was still struggling against the metal bars, and her eyes were clouded with tears. The tears stung her eyes, because of the many emotions they carried, pain, not just physically, in her heart, anger, betrayal, hate, but love at the same time. But mostly she cried out of sadness. She missed her family, her sister in particular. Eventually she gave up, and collapsed back onto her metal bed.  
  
"Don't give up!" Aerith cried, a large amount of urgency in her voice. "Believe in yourself. Wish and you'll find a release!" Amy willed the bars to break. Wished with all her might. With a loud clang, the bars broke, shattered into a thousand pieces, and with great difficulty, she jumped up. Sephiroth turned around this time, a look of mild surprise spread across his face. He realized this almost immediately, and took it off, and replaced it with a smirk.  
  
"You'll never defeat me." He said, still smirking  
  
"I'd like to test that theory" Amy replied, returning the smirk, and to everyone's surprise, very well. She raised her right arm, and the silvery sword materialized once more in her hand.  
  
"I think you've forgotten one teensy little problem-" said Sephiroth, a demonic grin, in fact, more of a leer, on his face. "you don't know how to fight! You demonstrated that fact very well on poor Riku."  
  
"Ah, but I went easy on him. but you." Amy said.  
  
"Really? It looked like you were just really crappy at fighting."  
  
"You know, Sephiroth, if I didn't know better, I'd think you're frightened. I mean, why else would a respectable person like you natter on about utter crap, if you aren't afraid of an arse kicking?"  
  
"That's it" said Sephiroth, raising the Masamune "you asked for it." He lunged forward, his sword outstretched. Amy dodged it, jumped up, and kicked him onto the floor when he thrust his sword forward again. She jumped on top of him, punching him over and over on his face and in his ribs.  
  
"Are you gonna kill me already?" Sephiroth gasped for breath, after having the wind knocked out of him, and through the blood which was streaming from his nose and cut lip. Amy stood up, and, placing her sword right on his heart, just stood there. Eventually, she sighed and said  
  
"I cant do it"  
  
"Awww, that's the disadvantage of having a pure heart. Too good to kill." Amy didn't respond, but just stood there. She glanced around the room. All she could think about was how much pain she could sense in the room, it was even coming off the heartless over with Riku. 'wait a minute' she thought to herself 'Heartless are devoid of emotion, how can that be' she slowly walked towards the Heartless, which had stopped dancing when it saw her approach.  
  
"Laura?" she asked the darkness "Laura is that you?" the Heartless walked- or crawled, or however you could describe the jerky movements they used to advance- towards Amy, and Yuffie gasped loudly, and Cloud yelled "Amy! Be careful!" but Amy somehow knew what she was doing and wasn't afraid. The Heartless had obviously decided it was in a hurry and began running, or moving faster, or something, and Amy took a few steps towards it and-  
****Flashback****  
  
"Are you tired or something, you just drifted off"  
  
"Yeah, I'm knackered"  
  
"Well get to bed" And the smile she knew so well.  
  
****End Flashback****  
  
She ran up to Laura the Heartless and hugged her so hard she must have squeezed all the darkness away. And there she was, Laura, but she was crying.  
  
"Amy, thank you." Her eyes were just streaming with tears, and it hurt Amy so much to see her sister like this.  
  
"Laura!" Laura collapsed on the floor, breathing heavily.  
  
"They got Scott and Mum, sis."  
  
"I know, and they got you too."  
  
"I'll be alright. I'm sorry. And Amy, I love you, I'll always be with you"  
  
"Sorry for what? I." Amy shook Laura "Laura! Laura! Wake up!" she looked up. A shimmering heart rose up and faded away into the atmosphere.  
  
But Amy knew she would never wake up. She was just about to give up when she thought of her sister's last words. I'll always be with you. In fact, she always had been, and the memories Amy had of her were just there to remind her of that. 


	11. Chapter 11

Ok, this is the last chappy, so enjoy, and err, don't run with scissors, kids!!! Disclaimer: I do not own Riku, Sora, Kairi, or any of the other characters that don't belong to me. I also don't own Kingdom Hearts. What do I own?? Ahemm. on with the story!! That must be like the 100th time I've said that.  
  
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Chapter 11  
  
Sephiroth had escaped by the time Amy came out of her trance and managed to untie Leon, Yuffie, Cloud and Aerith. Then they remembered Riku. Amy rushed to the stone bed, and, taking him into her arms, gasped  
  
"Riku," she could hardly speak through tears. She took him into her arms, hardly able to breath. "Riku" she shook him "wake up, Riku." She collapsed on the floor with him still in her arms. "Wake up." she whispered. Everyone stood, watching, not able to say anything. Suddenly, Amy reached over and took up the necklace in her hand. For a moment, she kept the locket held firmly in her hand, but after a while, she studied it. It was glowing. She put it around Rikus neck and sighed  
  
"Here. This is yours."  
  
"His heart must have disappeared into the atmosphere!" cried Aerith. Everyone stood still, as if trying to get the heart to float back to Riku's chest. After a while, Amy spoke, without taking her eyes off Riku, without even wiping the still freely flowing tears off her cheeks.  
  
"No." Amy said, her cheeks now stained with tears as she sniffed loudly. "When the Heartless dies, the heart goes back. Well that's what happened to me, so." she looked at Leon, who nodded.  
  
"It's true. But then, why isn't he. well, you know, alive?" he said  
  
"Because for one moment, that one moment that counted, I didn't love Riku. I hated him. So the piece of my heart must have returned to the locket. But obviously he still loves me, or did, because my hearts still here..."  
  
"That means." started Cloud, but Amy, and everyone else knew what he was going to say. They all looked at Amy, who was deep in thought now. She was completely submerged in her own thoughts now.  
*Flashback*  
  
They were building Amy's tree house  
  
"Are you two gonna help us?" that was Riku  
  
"We're doing our nails!" from Kairi. Sora and Riku sighed heavily,  
  
"Let's get 'em!" shouted Sora.  
  
****End Flashback****  
  
Amy was brought back to earth suddenly, and Riku started gasping for breath.  
  
"Amy, I'm so sorry." Then he collapsed back down and just lay there, still breathing heavily, not saying anything.  
  
Back on the Gummi Ship, Amy watched her friends, saw everything about them. She didn't talk, just watched. She knew she was going to have to leave Leon, Aerith, Cloud and Yuffie again, but she wasn't sad this time. She knew that they would always remain a part of her heart, just like everyone else. Her memories of them would remind her of that.  
  
They landed back on the Destiny Islands. Riku and Amy said brief good- byes to Cloud, Leon, Aerith and Yuffie, and Amy begged them to stay a while, but they had to go. Sora and Kairi came running up the beach and waved goodbye too, and they carried on until they disappeared into a warp hole. An awkward silence followed and it reminded Amy of her first day on the Destiny Islands.  
  
"Well, it looks like you're stuck with us for good this time!" said Sora, cheerfully, not seeming to notice the excruciating tension, especially between Amy and Riku. They all looked at Amy, not knowing what Amy was going to say.  
  
"I'm tired. I'm gonna get some sleep." She said, looking at her feet, then almost ran to her tree house. A pause followed, then Riku said, "yeah, me too." And he went, too.  
  
Amy slept really badly that night. In fact, she didn't really sleep at all, just tossed and turned. That morning, Kairi burst into Amy's bedroom, beaming.  
  
"I really need to get a lock" mumbled Amy, but Kairi didn't hear.  
  
"Guess what, Amy, guess what?"  
  
"I dunno, tell me when I care" Amy said, sleepily, and rolled over.  
  
"I'm not even gonna ask what happened yesterday, to put you in such a bad mood"  
  
"Not a morning person" Amy mumbled. Kairi shook Amy and whined  
  
"Come on, guess! You know you want to" Amy swatted Kairi away with her hand. Amy sat up  
  
"Gawwd, what are you, the devil on my shoulder?" Kairi pouted. "Ok, I don't know, what happened?"  
  
"Are you sure you wanna know?" Kairi teased  
  
"No!" Amy cried, smiling, diving under the covers again  
  
"Come out, this is important, you lazy bum"  
  
"Well why didn't you say, I'm all ears. So what happened, did you break a nail or something?" Amy asked, earnestly  
  
"No, Sora kissed me, silly!" Kairi said, flashing Amy a toothy grin.  
  
"Really? Wow. We- I mean I - always knew there was something going on between you two. So, you've told me what happened, can I go back to sleep now?"  
  
"No. you have to ask *exactly* what happened now." Amy groaned.  
  
"So what *exactly* happened?" she said, in a voice which was as bored as she could get it, but in reality, she was quite interested.  
  
"Well," Kairi said, not noticing "after you had gone in, and Riku just suddenly got tired as well, Sora sat next to me. It was sooo romantic. All the stars were out, and it was like they were smiling down on us. It seemed like it was just him and me, alone on the pier. We talked for ages, and then, just as we were about to go in, he told me that he might as well say he really likes me, that I probably knew anyway, and then, I said I liked him too, and we just err. kinda kissed! Are you happy for us?"  
  
"Yeah, course, can I be bridesmaid at your wedding?" Amy got up, got dressed, and sat and had breakfast with Kairi.  
  
"So what're you going to do about Riku?" Kairi asked, eventually.  
  
"Well, I'm gonna have to face him, aren't I? I mean, he was like, one of my best friends, so." Amy replied. Kairi looked at Amy, surprised at this answer. "I never said *when* I was gonna face him, did I? I think a spot of good old fashioned avoiding is in order." And with that, she finished her last pancake, and drank the last drop of orange juice, and sprang up from the table. "wanna go see Selphie and Tidus and Wakka?" she said, outstretching her arm as if she was a mother taking her daughter by the hand.  
  
"Whatever" Kairi replied, and took Amy's hand. "So, what're you gonna do when you do bump into Riku?" Kairi asked  
  
"Dunno," Amy said, but Kairi wasn't listening to Amy, because she had just thought of a plan.  
  
That evening, Amy and Kairi found each other after Kairi had rushed off to find Sora, and Kairi said she 'just needed to nip inside to get something', and would meet up in 5 minutes at the Paopu Tree. Amy said OK, and in 5 minutes time, was headed across the warm, golden sand, headed towards a figure which she must be Kairi, she thought, sitting on the Paopu Tree. She crossed the bridge, and decided it definitely wasn't Kairi, because of the fact that it was Riku. She muttered something about Kairi and Sora and a big axe to herself, and walked on. She leaned on a tall, thin coconut tree-trunk, gazing out to the horizon, and took a deep breath.  
  
"Beautiful night, isn't it?" "It is" Riku replied, not seeming to notice that Amy was talking to him again. "Can I sit with you?" asked Amy  
  
"Course" said Riku, simply, moving along. They sat, their hair gently blown back by the breeze, getting lost in their own thoughts.  
  
"I meant it, you know. When I said I was sorry." Riku said, finally.  
  
"I know you did." Amy replied "but what gets me is why you went along with dear old Sephy in the first place" Riku sighed heavily.  
  
"He told me everything I was dreading. That there was more than a little bit of darkness in my heart, and that I would be of better use to the dark side than with you lot. I always felt as if I was just there, you know, Kairi's like your girly friend, and Sora's your protector, but what was I? just some guy that was there. But mostly what got me was he said that-" Riku looked at Amy, but she didn't look back "that you didn't love me." Amy was surprised at this, and turned to look him straight in the eye. And she saw one thing. His soul.  
  
"You are completely clueless" she giggled, and flung her arms around him.  
  
They held each other in their arms, staring into the now starry sky, not saying a word, until morning. And every time they looked into each other's eyes, they remembered love, hate, pain and just plain weird stuff, but they always saw into each others hearts and souls. And every night when they sat on the Paopu Tree, they just knew they would never have to share one, they didn't need to.  
  
THE ENDDDDDDDDDDDD  
  
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YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAAYYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYYAYAYAAYAYAYAYYYY!!!!!!!!! Tis the end of an era.. Aaanyway, please review and tell me wot u thought, come one ppls!!!! Lots of love, and thankyous to evry1 who has taken time to read my fanfiction. And thanks again, Granola, for ur help and suggestions, u best join 2 u know!! Oooooh, yeah, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY Amy (another Amy) and Beki, 4 Wednesday and Friday!!! I love u guys, you're my best m8sss *goes off to eat cake* 


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